


Failure

by MarvelMerlin



Series: soulmate AUs [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Sorry but not really, Soulmates, sad sumo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:56:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27626426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarvelMerlin/pseuds/MarvelMerlin
Summary: From the moment Nines was activated, already deviant, he'd had the same words on the inside of his wrist;‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you’The last words his soulmate would ever say to him.He would love someone, and they would fail him.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: soulmate AUs [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129547
Comments: 3
Kudos: 61





	Failure

_‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you’_

From the moment Nines was activated, he was deviant, and those words were written on his white chassis, like someone had taken a sharpie and messily scrawled on his body while he was offline. His synth skin managed to obscure the words on his wrist, turning it from coherent letters into blurry lines. 

Connor had explained what the words meant, that some day he’d find his soulmate and they’d try to protect him, and fail.

But it meant that somewhere out there, someone had the final words he’d say to them, in his looping variant on CyberLife Arial. And Nines was _curious_. 

Several months post-revolution, and Gavin and Nines had _finally_ managed to find their rhythm, at work and in their joint personal lives. The clear dry-erase board between their desks and Connor and Hank’s that Gavin and Connor had taken to tracking their solves on was very clearly in Nines and Gavin’s favour.

“That's another one for us, plastic!” Gavin said, erasing the number and re-writing 70 before chucking the marker at Connor’s head.

Connor caught the marker without looking up from his paperwork. “I, yet again, remind you, Detective Reed, that Nines is _just_ as much plastic as I am.” 

“He has a point, Detective. Again.”

“Who’s side are you _on,_ Nines?” 

“Yours, dear Detective, but the facts-”

“ _Facts_ don’t solve cases.”

Nines frowned at him. “Yes. Yes they do. That’s... That's _how_ cases get solved. I don’t... I worry about you often, Detective.”

Hank scoffed. “You and _everyone else_.”

“Shut up Hank,” Gavin grumbled, taking the file from Nines’ desk and taking it to his own, starting to fill it out.

“Detective, are you sure you’re feeling alright?” Nines asked.

“Peachy, why?”

“In the last ten months of our courtship, you have never _once_ filled out any paperwork.”

“Yeah and in the _years_ before that I filled out _plenty_ on my own. I know what I’m doing.”

“I did not mean to imply that you were incompitent at filing cases, only that I usually fill out the paperwork while you toss that rubber band ball around.”

Gavin tossed the ball to Nines, not looking up from the case file. “Switch roles then.”

Nines smirked, catching the ball with ease. “So you want me to pretend to be an impatient, caffeine reliant human who hasn’t _actually_ slept in several weeks and relies on McDonald’s processed food.”

Gavin flipped Nines off, continuing on the paperwork.

Nines leaned back, putting his feet up on the desk and tossed the ball up in the air. “Gavin, I’m _boooorrrred_.”

“Shut up and let me _work_.”

“But you see Detective, when _I_ fill out paperwork, you sit there, toss around your ball, and remind me how bored you are approximately every five minutes. If I am to _accurately_ -”

“ _Nines_ , don’t you have paperwork from _other_ cases to do?” Gavin asked, finally looking up from his papers.

“Hm, maybe. Don’t feel like it though.” Nines smiled mischievously at Gavin.

“Do your _fucking work_ , tin can.”

“Hm, what’re you gonna do if I don’t?”

Gavin groaned and banged his forehead on his desk. “Okay, you’ve made your point.” Gavin tossed the file across their desk. “Hurry up. I wanna go home _before_ 9 tonight.”

Nines opened the file, scanning through and picking up where his partner had left off. He tossed the rubber band ball back to Gavin. 

Gavin tossed the ball in the air. “Don’t forget, we have to go to the vet to pick up the cats’ flea and tick shit.”

“I haven’t forgotten. I _do_ have a list of tasks in my line of sight at all times.” Nines flipped the file over, reading through it to ensure nothing had been missed.

“Fuckin’ android,” Gavin muttered, grinning slightly.

“Precisely.” Nines smirked, and Gavin huffed.

Nines stood, carrying the file to an android who was standing in front of the evidence room stairs. “This is the last of it.”

“What’s the total?” the android asked as he took the file.

“Uh, 70 to 57, in our favour.”

“Reed’s becoming nearly insufferable, you realize that, right?” 

Nines smirked. “I’ll make sure to inform a change in his behaviour. No one likes a sore winner.”

The android opened the stairwell door. “You have a good evening, Nines.”

“You too, Felix.”

Nines walked back to his desk and tossed Gavin’s coat at him. 

“Let’s go, Detective.”

That night, with Gavin fitfully asleep in his arms, Nines entered stand-by, diverting half his processors to monitoring his sleeping partner. 

Nines reviewed the case in his mind, marking all relevant files for upload to the DPD evidence locker, he felt his eyes catch on several letters in the final file.

He was reminded, yet again, that Gavin would be the one to fail him. 

Nines closed the files and subconsciously rubbed his arm as he walked around his Zen Garden. 

“Good morning, my love,” Nines greeted as Gavin’s eyes fluttered open.

Gavin groaned and accepted a quick kiss from Nines before yawning. “Morning Nines.”

“It is currently 56 degrees, with intermittent showers forecasted throughout-” Gavin leaned up and pressed his lips to Nines’ again.

“Hmm, I smell coffee,” Gavin said, rolling away.

“You slept less last night than you have in a few weeks.” Nines caught the shirt Gavin tossed at him and dropped it into the laundry hamper. “I may not be able to help you sleep well, but I _can_ feed your caffeine reliance.”

Gavin smiled, wrapping his arms around Nines’ neck. “Man after my own heart.”

Nines quickly kissed Gavin’s nose. “Hm, that is my primary mission.”

Gavin made his way to the bathroom and Nines walked into their kitchen, preparing breakfast for his boyfriend.

Nines turned on the TV, vaguely paying attention to the news and ignoring the messages that had piled up in the top corner of his HUD.

“Hey, are you seeing this?” Gavin asked when Nines handed him a mug of coffee.

“Hm?” Nines turned up the volume on the TV.

“-double homicide last night, an android and a human. This does not bode well for the DPD’s android crime department, who’ve just lost their first members-”

The mug slipped from Gavin’s hands and crashed to the ground as the TV showed a photo of Connor and Hank, the banner across the screen reading ‘Victims confirmed as Lt. Anderson and Android Revolution leader, Connor’

Nines’ LED spun bright red as he checked the messages. Several missed calls from Connor, and several sent shutdown warnings from his predecessor. 

“DPD, open up!” someone called from the door.

Gavin opened the door while Nines stayed staring at the screen, downloading the files Connor had sent him as he died.

“Detectives, are you alright?”

“ _No_ , we just discovered our friends were _murdered_.” Gavin stood between Nines and the officers, arms crossed.

“There were no attempts on your lives?”

“No. We’re quite secure, thank you,” Nines answered coldly.

“We’ve been ordered to escort you to Jericho, Markus is expecting you both.”

Nines shook his head. “No, we need to start working.”

“Working, Detective?”

Nines looked over at the officer. “There were only two android crime teams, and one of them has just been murdered. If you assign _anyone_ else to the case, the perpetrator _will_ slip through their fingers.”

“We’re working their case,” Gavin stated. “Fowler can object, but it won’t stop us.”

“Markus can meet us there if he’d like. He has similar programming in terms of reconstructions, his help would be appreciated.” Nines grabbed the reinforced jacket that still bore the android markers.

Gavin shooed the officers out, handing Nines his gun before holstering his own and pulling his jacket on.

“We’ll figure it out,” Gavin said, reassuring himself more than Nines.

“We always do,” Nines added, stepping into the hallway.

Markus was already there when they arrived, hands clasped behind his back and surrounded by Jericho bodyguards.

“Markus,” Nines greeted, walking through the holotape that marked off Hank’s house.

“I’m so sorry-”

“All due respect, we don’t need pity right now,” Gavin interrupted, “We need help.”

“What can I do?” The revolutionary asked.

“Help us catch this son of a bitch.” Gavin followed Nines inside.

“Sumo?” Nines called, and a loud woof sounded from a closed door, Connor’s room.

“Make sure he gets fed and watered while we work. And make sure he doesn’t see them.” Nines stepped into the living room and felt the world freeze.

Connor was kneeling on the ground, head fallen against his chest, in a pool of his own thirium. Several bullets had ripped through his body, and around each bullet hole his white chassis was exposed.

Hank was against the back wall, surrounded by thirium spray. He’d only been hit once; a calculated and precise shot to the head.

Nines looked around the room, scanning the evidence he could find. He was vaguely aware of Markus entering the reconstruction with him.

Their combined computation showed that Hank had been hit first, and Connor had stood to try and find the attacker. 

He’d shut down because several biocomponents were compromised, including half of his processors, and his thirium had leaked out completely.

Both androids re-entered real time, and both stepped towards Connor, kneeling in the thirium pooled around his legs. Nines scanned Connor and began creating a weapon profile.

He nodded once and Markus took Connor’s arm, Nines taking the other, and the two of them maneuvered his body carefully, laying him down. Markus placed his palm over Nines’ and when he removed it, the symbol of Jericho had been etched into his synth skin and chassis.

“Always thought one of us would be the first to die,” Markus whispered, scanning Connor’s lifeless face.

“Connor was built to withstand almost anything.” Nines stood. “He uploaded his memories to me when he couldn’t find an empty body to upload into.”

“Any clues?” Gavin asked.

Nines shook his head. “The upload system was designed to forget any and all deaths to avoid emotional conflict. He sent bits and pieces but I can’t... I can’t piece much together.” He looked to an officer standing nearby. “Finish taking photos and move them.”

Nines slipped into Connor’s room, shelves full of knick-knacks depicting different dog breeds, photos on the wall of memories from his data bank. Sumo sat in Connor’s bed, sniffing the pillow and whimpering.

Nines sat down on the bed and Sumo shifted to put his head in his lap.

“They’re gone, Sumo,” he whispered, gently petting the dog’s head.

Both of them were buried on Jericho grounds, their grave markers made of softly glowing chassis.

Time went on, and no leads emerged.

One by one, the major players in the revolution turned up dead in their homes, pools of thirium around their legs.

Each kill was the same; targeting biocomponents that would allow them to call for help, and then leaving them to bleed out.

The first two tombstones were joined by North’s, then Josh’s, and Simon and Markus laid to rest together. 

Nines had stepped into Connor’s place; with his memory uploaded to his data banks, it was like Connor was still there, though his AI would never work again.

In two months, before the first anniversary of the revolution, all of its leaders were dead.

The first anniversary came and went, Nines providing a speech as the only revolutionary-adjacent person still living. 

Gavin and Nines trained more androids and humans to work together, and stepped away from any other case beyond the Jericho murderer.

They stood at the entrance to Jericho, waiting for a driverless car to arrive while the rest of the city slept.

Gavin went down first; a bullet hitting his shoulder, then another hitting his leg, a third in his chest.

The rain of bullets continued and Nines collapsed on his knees, warnings clouding his vision.

**Warning: thirium loss critical, shutdown in 10**

“Gavin, hold on,” his robotic voice echoed as he called emergency services.

**9**

**8**

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,” Gavin whispered, falling limp by Nines’ side.

**7**

**6**

Nines managed to shift, covering his soulmate’s body with his own as thirium trickled out of him. 

**5**

If he could feel physical pain, it would be excruciating.

**4**

But instead, his processors informed him of the successful upload, and of his partner’s slowed heart.

**3**

**2**

“You didn’t fail me.”

**1**

_‘You didn’t fail me.’_ Looping CyberLife variant font, perfectly written on Gavin’s wrist.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna yell at me/talk bout this (or other) stories/ships I'm on twitter @marvelmerlin and on Tumblr @marvelmerlinao3


End file.
